X. 



/■-. '2. 






REPORT 



raORIT! OF THE COMMITTJl 



\JBL10 

OF THE V 



PRIMARY SCHOOL BOARD, 




THE CASTE SCHOOLS 



CITY OF BOSTON; 



WITH SOME 



REMARK.^ ON THE CITY SOLICITOR'S OPINION. 



BOSTON: 
A.J. WRIGHT'S STEAM PRESS, 

NO. 3 WATER STREET. 

1846. 









•^^ ^v 






NOTE 



The following is the Report of the Minority of a Committee appointed 
by the Primary School Committee of Boston, on a petition of sundry 
colored citizens, praying for the abolition of the separate schools for 
colored children, and for their admission into the Common Schools. 
A motion to print it with the report of the Majority of the Committee, 
was negatived. It is therefore now printed by individual members, 
who believe the fair and proper course would have been, to have 
directed the printing of both reports, instead of one only. 



MINOlilTY REPORT. 



The Minority of the Committee to whom ims referred the 
petition of sundry colored citizens to abolish the distbiction 
noio existing with regard to colored children^ and admit them 
into such schools as may be nearest their places of residence, 
having been ujiable to unite with the Majority, in the conclu- 
sions they have reached, and in the course they recommend, 
deem it necessary to submit their vieivs in a separate Report. 

V^HATEVER may have been the orighi of our Common School 
system, its present existence is rendered indispensable, by the 
nature of our political institutions. The primary power in the 
State, the source of all pohtical authority, rests with us, in the 
whole body of the people. Their will, is the supreme law, 
and they are fully competent to determine the policy of the 
State, to alter or change their system to any extent, or in any 
manner they may deem right and proper." J 

Hence the necessity of general education, and hence the wel- 
fare of the whole fully harmonizes with the highest interest of 
the individua:. The doctrine that it is the duty of the State, 
flowing from hese circumstances, to educate its rising mem- 
bers, and that it is the correlative right of every child in the 
State to receive its education at the cost, and under the direc- 
tion of the community, is established with us, as firmly and 
undeniably, as any principle or policy can ever be established. 
Many other considerations, which go to show the utiUty and 
advantages of the Common School system, might be adverted 
to and enlarged upon, if it were thought necessary, in connec- 
tion with the subject under consideration ; but we rely upon 
those before mentioned for general assent, and as sufficient for 
the purpose in view and the present occasion. 



Our Common Schools, then, are common to all ; and each 
and all are legally entitled, without let or hindrance, to the 
equal benefit of all the advantages they may confer — as com- 
mon to each and all, as the public highways, the courts of 
law, or the light of day. It is the peculiar advantage of our 
republican system, that it confers, civil equality and legal 
rights upon every citizen — that it knows no privileged class, 
and no degraded class — that it confers no distinction, and cre- 
ates no difference, between rich and poor, learned and ignorant, 
white and black ; but places all upon the same level, and con- 
siders them alike entitled to its protection and its benefits. 

The power of School Committees, we consider to be limited 
and constrained by this general spirit of our civil policy, and 
by the letter and spirit of the laws which regulate our Com- 
mon School system. They are to execute the duties devolving 
upon them in strict accordance with the intent of that system, 
and for the purposes only, for which it is established and sus- 
tained. Any course on their part which does, or which tends 
to counteract, restrict or limit, to any individual or class, the 
advantages and benefits designed for all, must be considered 
an illegal use of their authority, an arbitrary act, and exer- 
cised as illegal and arbitrary acts usually are, for pernicious 
purposes. These premises will receive, we presume, general 
assent ; and we propose to apply them to the question before 
us, and be governed by the conclusions they may reach. 

This Board has decided, that the children of colored parents 
shall be excluded from the schools generally, and shall be sent 
to separate or caste schools, into which no other than colored 
children shall be admitted. In this instance, therefore, the 
usual and necessary course, pursued with respect to other than 
colored children, of admitting them into schools nearest their 
residence and most convenient for them, has in the case of the 
colored children been departed from and overruled, for the 
purpose of classing them together, obliging them to go by 
themselves, and excluding them from school intercourse with 
all others. For what purpose this anomaly exists, we do not 
now inquire, but we will hereafter advert to it. 

The authority of the School Committee to do this, is denied 



by the petitioners, and they represent the practice as a griev- 
ance that should be aboUshed. 

The question which first arises is ; have the School Commit- 
tee any right or reason to estabhsh such schools, and separate 
the children of the community into classes, to decide that the 
children of the colored people shall go by themselves exclu- 
sively, or that the children of Irish parentage shall be excluded 
from all others and go by themselves — or the children of the 
poor in like manner? Shall any or all of these be selected, 
each from all. sorted out and confined to separate schools 7 

If there is authority to do this in one instance, or to any one 
portion of the community who, in the exercise of our discretion 
or caprice, may be designated as a class, differing from others 
in some respect or circumstances, it seems clear, there is in all 
the cases supposed. 

(yVe apprehend, if this principle should be carried out and 
applied to other classes or portions of the community, it would 
inevitably destroy our present system of public instruction, 
and leave us to deplore the ruin of the Common Schools, the 
best and noblest legacy of our pilgrim fathers. 

On the point of legal authority to exclude colored children 
from the common schools, and confine them to separate 
schools, the Board have the opinion of Richard Fletcher, Esq., 
given at the request of the School Committee of Salem, 
respecting the legality of separate schools for colored children 
in that city. . This opinion is full and explicit, and it wholly 
denies the right of the School Committee of that city to make 
the distinctioi on the ground of color, then in practice there, 
as now in this city. 

It is contended, however, that this opinion, which is admit- 
ted to be corrcict respecting the separate schools of Salem, 
where the city is divided into territorial districts, is of no 
authority when applied to Boston, which has no territorial 
boundaries to it? school districts; that though, for all pur- 
poses except thi.v of separate schools, we have eighteen dis- 
tricts, with as many organized district committees, yet we 
have but one district in law, because we have failed to estab- 
lish territorial lines around our districts, and therefore, taking 



advantage of this circumstance, we avoid the obhgations of 
the law and are not violating its requirements. Thus, what is 
law in Salem, is not law in Boston, because the eighteen dis- 
tricts in Boston become one district, and the one district 
becomes eighteen, to suit the convenience of " our peculiar 
institution" of colored schools, but for no other purpose. 

The assertion, that Mr. Fletcher's opinion is not applicable 
to the separate schools of Boston, is not true. The whole 
scope and force of his reasoning from beginning to end, as well 
as the terms in which he states his conclusions, show that his 
opinion is entirely applicable to the case where districts do not 
exist. He nowhere alludes to their existence in Salem, although 
his attention is called to them in the statement submitted to 
him, nor draws a single inference therefrom. He could not 
say that his conclusions are inapplicable to this city, without 
taking back every line and word which he has uttered. No 
better summary of our views upon this question can be made, 
than by adopting the following language from his opinion. 

" The principle of perfect equality, is the vital principle of 
the system (our free school system.) Here all classes of the 
community mingle together. The rich and the poor meet upon 
terms of equality, and are prepared to discharge the duties of 
life by the same instructions. It is the principle of equality, 
cherished in the free schools, on which our free government 
and free institutions rest. Destroy this principle in the schools, 
and the people would soon cease to be a free people. 

"In view of these principles, could the School Committee ex- 
clude any particular class of white children from the free 
schools, and provide for them a distinct and separate school ? 
Could they, for instance, exclude the children of mechanics 
and laborers, and confine them to a separate school distinct 
from other classes ? The School Committee have the general 
charge and superintendence of the public schools. But to make 
such a distinction as is stated, would not surely come within 
the meaning of " general charge and superintendence." It 
would not be "superintending," but destroying the vital prin- 
ciples of the system. 

"The course of legislation I believe to be in perfect accord- 



ance with these general principles. In 12 vol. Pick. 213, Perry 
vs. Dover, it was decided that certain individuals cannot be 
selected and set off by themselves into a district. The decision 
of this last point bears directly upon the point under considera- 
tion. It appears to me, that there is no law, adjudication or 
principle, which would authorize a School Committee to ex- 
clude any class of ivhite children from the free schools, and 
restrict them to distinct schools provided for them. 

" But the question proposed to me is, can the School Com- 
mittee of Salem exclude the colored children from the free 
schools, and restrict them to a distinct school provided for them 
exclusively 7 I can answer this question very briefly, by say- 
ing, that neither the constitution nor the laws of this Com- 
monwealth, make any distinction between a colored person 
and a white person. It may be said that the free school pro- 
vided exclusively for colored children is equally advantageous 
to them. I think iLwouldbe easy to show that this is not the 
case. But suppose it were so, it would TrTno way affect the 
decision of the question. The coloreci children are lawfully 
entitled to the benefits of the free schools, and are not bound to 
accept an equivalent. Except in the case of taking property 
for public use, no man can be compelled to relinquish what 
belongs to him, for an equivalent. Every one must have his 
own, unless he consents to relinquish it." 

The whole argument may be stated thus. The colored 
man, as any c ther citizen, has the right to send his child to 
the nearest school, subject only to restrictions for good and 
lawful reasons But his race or his color is an unlawful and 
inhuman reasoi for restraining his right of choice ; for our 
constitution and laws have everywhere repudiated all distinc- 
tions of citizens :nto classes, on this, or any other ground, and 
have pronounced all possible reasoning in support or justifica- 
tion of such distinctions insufficient and dangerous. 

In this case, however, as in most others, where arbitrary 
power is injuriously exercised, an attempt is made to justify 
the practice by the assumed necessities of the case, and to pal- 
Uate it on the groui d that no injustice is done to, and no griev- 
ance is sustained by, the complaining parties, but that it is 



8 

better for all, but more especially is it for the good of the col- 
ored children, that they should be educated by themselves, 
whereby, it is contended, they are much more rapidly advanced 
than they possibly can be, by attending the schools with the 
white children. This surprising fact is accounted for, if we 
understand aright, by the peculiarities of the colored race. 
Inferiority is by no means to be inferred from this arrange- 
ment, no sense of degradation is excited by it, but it is pre- 
cisely the one of all others best adapted to promote their self- 
respect, advance their mental and moral development, and 
elevate their civilization ! 

Whether these views are current in the community, and are 
relied upon to exclude the colored people from churches, lyce- 
ums, theatres, and all other places where the white race "most 
do congregate," we do not know, but it is to be feared this 
comfortable view of the matter has not yet reached so far 
It certainly was not held to be the reason, only a few years 
since, for expelling them from the cabins to the fore-decks of 
steam-boats, from the first class to the jim crow cars, and 
for various other like testimonials of brotherly regard on 
the part of the superior towards the inferior race. The 
most sagacious, certainly, if not the most profound discov- 
ery in political science, is due to our own time, and to 
our own country. This discovery, and the indefatigable 
genius which solved the problem of an indefinite extension 
of the area of freedom, by the enlargement and perpetuity of 
slavery, must both, in our humble judgment, give place to the 
new light in mental philosophy, which breaks forth from Jim 
Crow schools, and the ingenuity which proves them the most 
effective means for elevating the colored race. 

The assumption that these separate schools are not unjust and 
grievous to the complainants, we consider wholly unfounded. 
Is there no injustice perpetrated ; is there no grievance inflicted, 
by an arrangement that compels the colored residents of South, 
or East Boston to send their children to Belknap street, while 
the other children in tiie same neighborhoods, are not, perhaps 
in a single instance, obliged to go more than a quarter of a 
mile 1 To compel the colored children of those parts of the 



city, between the ages of four and seven years to go to Bel- 
knap street, or no where, is a practical denial of their right of 
attending school at all. 

It may be said, and whether trnly or not, we do not know, 
that there are no colored residents in South Boston or East 
Boston. But if such be the fact, the difficulty is not obviated, 
it is only changed to the other horn of the dilemma, — for if 
they wish to avail of public schooling, they are deprived of a 
choice of residence, and must move out of the city as some 
have actually done for this purpose principally, or they must, 
as most of them are obliged to do, locate themselves in the 
.vicinity of the colored schools, no matter what may be the 
character of the neighborhood, or how expensive, inconvenient 
or disadvantageous, in other respects it may be. 

It is common enough to hear the assertion, " they are a 
degraded race; they always have been so; and they always 
will be so." Without inquiring whether '■ the wish may not 
be father to the thought," it may be admitted that as a class 
they may be somewhat degraded; — that is to say, the degra- 
dation which ignorance and severe poverty are apt to produce, 
they are peculiarly liable to. In addition to these however, 
they labor under an influence particular to them alone, and 
far more active to produce degradation than both ignorance 
and poverty combined. That repugnance or prejudice, or by 
whatever name we may designate it on the part of the white 
race, which prevents tlie colored people from entering into the 
general industrial pursuits of the community and excludes 
them from the Schools, Lyceums and Colleges ; this influence 
it is, which, p.essing for ages upon an odious and ignorant 
minority, white or black, will undoubtedly produce degrada- 
tion, and furnis 1 ample cause for the condition of the blacks 
among us» 

Notwithstanding this, however, there are always individuals 
of them, whom no candid man will, in any just sense, con- 
sider as degraded— individuals who by the force of intellect, 
or other favorable circumstances, have gained for themselves, 
in spite of the adverse circumstance of color, a character 



10 

which no man need be ashamed of, but which aU must 
respect. 

Is there no self-stultification practiced by us, is there no 
iniquitous hardship inflicted upon him, to say to such a man, 
we have only the standard of color to class you by? We know 
nothing of intellect, or morals, or respectable standing, as 
applicable to you or to your children. No matter if you do 
live next door to an unexceptionable school, and two miles from 
the poorest school in the city, you must go to the poorest 
school — your children must attend these schools, and be sub- 
jected to the influences which there prevail, bad and evil 
though we know them to be : — and although the probability, 
not to say the certainty, will be, that you cannot, by this 
necessity we lay upon you, hope to transmit to your children 
your manly and irreproachable character, but must feel, that 
they will be dragged down to the degraded level which the 
mass of your race occupy, yet, we cannot help it — we must 
conform to our rules which know nothing of you, except your 
color. 

If you are aggrieved and wronged you can appeal to the 
Law ; and the Courts, if not biased as we are, by popular 
opinion, may redress your wrongs. But we don't advise you 
to go to Law and appeal to the Courts, for the expense is 
great, probably quite beyond your means, and the result, is at 
best, uncertain. If such an ofijence, coupled with the cool 
assurance of his christian brother, that the poor man may 
appeal to law, is not rank enough " to smell to Heaven," we 
can imagine none that is. So long as such a course is pursued 
towards the colored people, we cannot doubt they will be 
sufficiently degraded to satisfy the most inveterate hater of the 
race. 

When we deny that it is as advantageous for the colored 
children to attend the separate schools, as it would be, to be 
educated with the white children, we do not mean to be under- 
stood, that under other circumstances than exist here, they 
might not receive equal educational advantages from separate 
schools — but under the circumstances which do exist, we do 
deny, that they can receive equal benefit from separate which 



11 

tliey would from the common schools. They are a small 
minority, less than two per cent of our city population. They 
have been generally, and perhaps now are by the majority, 
considered, as a hopelessly inferior race, while some even 
contend that they partake but little of the attributes of 
humanity, and far more of those of the brute creation. Their 
character and condition it is said by such, is what it is, by the 
decree of Providence, irrespective of other influences. 

The natural consequences of this heresy, and of such views, 
have operated upon the colored people with a crushing 
severity. It has pressed upon them, upon their moral and 
intellectual character, their efforts and their condition, with a 
uniformity as all pervading and as effectual to keep the mass 
of them down, as the force of gravitation upon the human 
body is, to fix it to the earth. 

It is, we believe in obedience alone to this public opinion, 
and on this ground only that these caste schools can be 
defended or excused — the whole necessity of the case, " hath 
this extent," and no more than this. 

With such influences operating upon these schools, and to 
which they minister and tend greatly to perpetuate, what can 
be expected from them? The inevitable effect of such influ- 
ences upon the energies and labors of the teachers, committee 
and children, must necessarily follow, and the want of heart 
and faith in the work, will enfeeble and paralize the school 
and all connected with it. Where nothing is expected, but 
little will be attempted, and less accomphshed. ] 

Our reports will pass them by with the usual remark, 
" not much can be expected from this school, but it is believed 
to be in as good condition as at any former period, and as 
good perhaps, is can be expected from this class of children.'^ 

Our large professions, and our devotion to the principles of 
liberty and equality will not probably permit us to abolish 
these schools, and turn the children adrift, but otherwise, we 
can see no sufficient motive for continuing them. The aver- 
age attendance for six months of one, was 10 1-.5. Its appear- 
ance is decidedly consumptive, and we should judge it would 
soon save us the r>ecessity of any formal action, by a natural 



12 

death from that inveterate disease. The other, for the same 
period, averages 34. Both together, do not equal the average 
attendance of one of the white schools. Tlie cost of schooling 
the colored children is therefore more than double that of the 
same number of white children, and the result in education 
conferred, is in an inverse ratio to the expenditure. An exami- 
nation of these schools, is a penance, which even the advo- 
cates of the system, ought not in common charity to be 
subjected, and we think the former committee of the school in 
Belknap street, who we were told by the teacher had not 
examined it but once for two years, should be held fully 
excused, for what, those who judged without personal knowl- 
edge, might consider culpable neglect. 

If any fears are entertained that the abolition of these 
schools would be detrimental to the colored children, we are 
constrained to say we do not participate in them. We con- 
sider them a disgrace to the city, when viewed in the beg- 
garly amount of education they confer, but a still greater one 
for the prejudice against color they countenance and lend 
their efficient aid to perpetuate. 

We would not undervalue the small amount of education 
they confer, for we do not admit the adage "a little learning 
is a dangerous thing," but believe on the contrary, that even 
a little is a great blessing. 

But who of us would consent that his children should take 
the little these schools confer, at the price of inferiority and 
unfitness to associate with the mass 7 

This question is frequently considered as affecting only the 
colored people, and if they, or the majority of them submit to 
the present arrangement, our duty in the premises is dis- 
charged. We do not assent to this view of the matter. A 
wrong act or a wrong policy is seldom, if ever, confined in 
its results, to the immediate individual upon whom it is 
inflicted, but its influences are of much wider extent. We 
deem it morally injurious to the white children, inasmuch as 
it tends to create in most, and foster in all, feelings of repug- 
nance and contempt for the colored race as degraded inferiors, 
whom they may, or must, treat as such. This is the standard 



13 

of morals and humanity which these schools teach our chil- 
dren, who are thus led to attach to color alone, sentiments and 
emotions, which should arise, if at all, only in view of char- 
acter. 

The only security we can have for a healthy and efficient 
system of public instruction rests in the deep interest and 
vigilant care with which the more intelligent, watch over the 
welfare of the schools. This only will secure competent 
teachers, indefatigable exertion, and a high standard of excel- 
lence — and where the colored children are mingled up with 
the mass of their more favored fellows, they will partake of 
the advantages of this watchful oversight. Shut out and 
separated, they are sure to be neglected and to experience all 
the evils of an isolated and despised class. 
'( One of the great merits of our system of public instruction, 
is, the fusion of all classes which it produces. From a child- 
hood which shares the same bench and sports, there can 
hardly arise a manhood of aristocratic prejudice, or separate 
castes and classes. Our common school system suits our 
institutions, promotes the feeling of brotherhood and the habits 
of republican equality. To debar the colored race from these 
advantages, even if we still secured to them equal educational 
results, is a sore injustice and wrong, and is taking the surest 
means of perpetuating a prejudice, that should be deprecated 
and discountenanced by all intelligent and christian men.i 

Over a large portion of our country the colored race are 
subjected to the terrible condition of domestic servitude. In 
other portions, though declared free, yet Statute Law in some, 
and popular opin on in others, render them only nominally so. 
In the State of Ohio their testimony is prohibited in Courts of 
Law, and they are thus virtually outlawed. In the City of 
New York a licen ^e to drive his own truck for hire, is not 
permitted the cokred man. In the proverbially religious 
State of Connecticut, and in the no less proverbially demo- 
cratic State of New Hampshire, but a few years since, private 
schools for colored ciiildren were broken up and scattered by 
mobs, composed of '• gentlemen of property and standing," 
and so general was then and there, the prejudice against the 



/ 



14 

race, that the Law was powerless for protection, or for 
remedy. 

Are we shocked at the barbarity which these few samples 
of the many iniquities practiced elsewhere upon the colored 
man exhibit ? Let us beware then how we cherish a principle 
that leads to, and sanctions these results from which we 
recoil ; for the most that can be claimed in mitigation of our 
position is of degree only, and in the smaller extent to which 
we reduce the principle to practice. The same reasons are 
relied upon to excuse the atrocities we have alluded to, which 
with us, are the true causes, that demand the separate 
schools. 

It is the especial province of School Committees to direct 
and aid the rising generation in education and morals, to 
guide and cheer the youthful mind onward and upward 
towards a full and manly maturity and self-respect. In view 
of this high aim, can this Board consistently give its aid and 
sanction to an arrangement that necessarily tends to impair 
these objects towards a portion of their charge, and can it 
rightfully thus minister to the spirit which loudly proclaims 
the existence of degradation and demands its continuance? 

We think this spirit is sufficiently modified and weakened 
to render it no longer necessary or excusable, if indeed it ever 
were necessary, to obey its demands, or be governed by its 
requirements. But even if the fact were not so, we, whose 
province is the care of public instruction, are bound to 
remember that it is our duty to resist and lend our aid to cor- 
rect, not to countenance and follow, popular delusions wherever 
they may lead. 

This City, is now we believe the only place in this Com- 
monwealth, where any distinction whatever exists with respect 
to color, in the common schools. 

We doubt not many members of ihis Board have been 
induced to countenance this distinction, and decide for its 
continuance, from the fear, that the admission of colored chil- 
dren into schools with white children, would cause a popular 
ferment, that would seriously impair the condition of the schools. 

We believe this fear to be unfounded. The admission of 



15 

colored children indiscriminately with white children prevails 
in the schools of Salem, New Bedford, Nantucket, and Lowell, 
where the general feeling respecting colored people is doubt- 
less similar, to what it is here. In Salem and Nantucket, the 
separate schools have recently been abolished, and in New 
Bedford, and Lowell, no distinction has ever been practiced 
with reference to color, in the schools. What is done in these 
towns, most of which have, we believe a larger proportional 
colored population than Bosion, we think may atford some 
evidence that similar results may reasonably be expected to 
follow here. We will offer such evidence as we have been 
•able to obtain with reference to this subject, from persons 
officially connected with the schools in those places, by which 
it will be seen^ that separate schools cannot be justified on 
the ground of expediency, that they are not advantageous to 
the colored people, but that they were quite the reverse in 
those places./ In two of the Primary schools of district 1.5 in 
this City, four colored children have attended at different 
• periods of time during the past few years. Our connection 
with those schools during the whole time of their attendance 
enables us to affirm, that no difficulty occurred in consequence, 
and no notice was taken of the circumstance except in a single 
instance. One third more than the average number of the 
colored children that now attend the separate schools, might 
with perfect convenience to themselves, be distributed in 
twenty of the Primary schools, and average only three to each 
school. Considering what has occurred in district 15, who 
can imagine that any inconvenience or outcry worthy se- 
rious notice would arise from the admission of such a small 
number of ihese children, or of even double this number into the 
schools? No doubt, however, there would be some com- 
plaints if the colored children were admitted into the schools. 
No doubt some pj rents would feel aggrieved and the delicate 
sensibilities and aristocratic prejudices of others, might be 
moved — but we do doubt if we should meet as much com- 
plaint upon the admission of colored children as we now do, 

* See Appendix. 



16 

respecting the admission of Irish children, which in many 
schools are sufficiently numerous to give tone and character to 
the school. That these complaints would, however, soon decline 
and die out, especially if the district and local committees 
should discharge their duty with firmness, tempered with dis- 
cretion and mildness, we see no reason whatever to doubt. 
Nor do we suppose the immediate results to the colored chil- 
dren would be very marked or instantaneously apparent. 
Having adopted the just and true policy, we may safely 
trust to the fidelity with which it should be conducted, and to 
a reasonable time, for its legitimate fruits, and the good it 
will eventually accomplish. 

It has been seriously urged, against abohshing these colored 
schools, that the grammar school committee sustain the rela- 
tion of constituents to this committee — that we are responsible 
to them, are under their control in this matter, and that until 
they move or require this committee to move in the premises, 
we are not justified in entertaining the subject. Such reason- 
ing however, can only serve to weaken the cause it is intended 
to sustain. The powers and duties of the two committees 
are, it is believed, entirely distinct and independent, neither 
having any control or check over the other, or over the schools 
placed within the sole and particular charge of each. 

Much reliance is also placed upon the fact that some forty 
or fifty years since, the colored people of the then town of 
Boston, petitioned for a separate school for their children, 
which, after some demur on the part of the town, was granted, 
upon condition of their contributing towards its support, by 
paying a small monthly sum for each child attending. From 
this circumstance, a charge is made against the present gener- 
ation of colored people, that they are capricious, inasmuch as 
they now wish to abolish the schools their fathers sought to 
establish, and they are gravely rebuked and taunted, as being 
" unworthy descendants " of worthy sires ; as dishonoring the 
memories of the Primus Hall, Prince Saunders, and other 
magnates of a '■'■ glot^ious ancestry." They do not, it is said, 
moreover, really wish, or expect, the change they now petition 
us to make, but they have suffered themselves to become 



17 

the dupes and tools of others, and at their instigation com- 
plain of an arrangement which once they were anxious to 
obtain, solely for the purpose of making party capital for their 
instigators, and of furnishing a subject of agitation for another 
purpose. The want of justice which characterizes the latter 
of these two charges against them, and the contempt for the 
petitioners which such an imputation implies, is too open, 
gross and palpable to require farther comment, and we pass 
to the former, the complaint of capriciousness. 

The condition of the colored people fifty years since, when 
they had just escaped from the condition of slavery, and the 
universal feelings and opinions of the white race respecting 
them, have both, now become very much modified and 
changed. That, which was then a gain and an advantage, 
under circumstances which then existed, is now a grievance 
under the circumstances which now exist. To permit a 
colored man to ride in a stage coach instead of compelling him 
to go on foot, was an advantage once, but it would be a griev- 
ance now to compel him to travel by stage, when he can avail 
himself of a rail-road car for that purpose. Then, they were 
low in the scale of civilization and morals in comparison with 
their condition now. Then, they were universally considered 
as too inferior to admit of any decided advancement. Now, 
many of them furnish abundant proof of the fallacy of such 
an idea. Then, in Boston, they were fair game for the disso- 
lute, the thoughtless, and the wanton, to break all sorts of 
rude and unfee'ing jests upon, and brutally to abuse and 
revile whenever they assumed any other character than ser- 
vant of servants, and humblest of the humble. Now, though 
something of this may perhaps still linger among us, it is no 
longer fashionable, or even reputable, to give it any very open 
or decided manifestation. ( To escape intolerable persecution 
and contempt, the} were once glad to be herded together by 
themselves, y To partake of advantages they can now peace- 
fully enjoy, they ask that their undoubted right to do so, may 
no longer be withheld. 

It is to be regretted that on this question, there seems to 
prevail a proneness to raise false issues, rather than to ac- 
knowledge the true issues, and manfully meet them. Far- 
3 



18 

fetched and fntile reasoning, wholly irrelevant, is relied upon 
for justifying the separate schools, while the true causes ap- 
pear to be studiously avoided and kept out of sight. But no 
attempt to mystify the subject, no effort to warp the judgment 
by investigations or assertions respecting the discrepancies 
and characteristics of different races, will avail to cloak the 
real causes that demand these caste schools — least of all, can 
a philosophic theory more fanciful than sound, be relied upon 
in this matter, to contradict the plainest deductions of common 
sense and the uniform testimony and experience of daily life. 
That the defence of these schools should be mainly placed on 
the ground, that it is solely for the good of the colored children, 
that they are confined to separate schools, is certainly matter 
of great surprise and astonishment. 

Considering also the character and condition of our separate 
schools, as well as those which have existed elsewhere, the 
assertion that they produce for the colored children better 
educational and moral results, than can be expected for those 
children from the common schools, is truly no less astonish- 
ing. 

The advocates and abettors of slavery, driven from every other 
pretext to justify that institution, now unhesitatingly proclaim 
its peculiar adaptation to the negro race, and the great advan- 
tages it confers upon its victims, over any good that can possi- 
bly accrue to them from a state of freedom. 

It is to be hoped that the philosophy of morals which sla- 
very teaches, may not be estabhshed as our guide, by the 
Primary School Board of the city of Boston, and the same 
fiction unblushingly put forth, and the same necessity assigned 
for these caste schools, that are urged in defence of the " pecu- 
liar institution;" — for if primary instruction with us, is to take 
the same course that our political and ecclesiastical arrange- 
ments and influences have, northern subserviency, and 
southern principles will both be complete, and the rising gen- 
eration can hardly help being thoroughly imbued with the 
moral and political code of the nation, as " established in 
church and state." 

It is so notoriously true however, and so palpably apparent, 
that the colored children are shut out of the common schools 



19 

solely by reason of the objection on the part of many of the 
wliite citizens, to have their children attend the same schools 
with the colored children; that it is entirely superfluous to 
dwell on this fact. The negro pew, the Jim Crow car, and 
the caste school, unquestionably owe their origin to one and 
the same cause, and a labored effort to show this cause to be 
an honest regard for the best interests of the colored people, 
should meet with the contempt which is due to gross and 
deliberate misrepresentation. 

We consider the position of this Board in relation to these 
schools to be entirely wrong and altogether unjustifiable. The 
claims of humanity, the demands of justice, and the require- 
ments of conscience, all, call earnestly and distinctly, for an 
abatement of this evil. 

If we have succeeded in making ourselves understood, it 
will be seen that we oppose any distinction whatever being 
made on the ground of color or race, and that all applicants 
for admission into the primary schools, whether white or 
black, should, according to the rule for white children, recent- 
ly adopted by this Board, be "especially entitled to enter the 
school nearest his or her place of residence." 

Inasmuch however as decided and conflicting opinions exist, 
with regard to the best method of bringing abodt this result, 
some deeming it more advisable to adopt gradual means for 
abolishing these caste schools, we have judged proper to offer 
the following vote for consideration. 

Voted, that such of the colored inhabitants as may prefer 
sending their children to the separate schools, shall be per- 
mitted to do so , and that those who may choose to send their 
children to the other schools nearest their place of residence 
shall be entitled so to send them, and that it is the duty of the 
local committee lo grant permits in conformity with this rule. 

This course if taken, will no doubt satisfy those of the 
colored people wlio feel aggrieved by being obliged to send 
their children to llie separate schools, or forego all advantages 
of pubhc instruction, — and it will relieve the Board from a 
troublesome question, which will probably be contiimally 
pressed upon its consideration until some substantial change is 
made ; for it cannot be supposed that so gross an outrage upon 



20 

the rights and interests of even the lowest in the community 
will be quietly submitted to. If, as is confidently asserted^ 
none of the colored people wish for or will accept any change, 
the schools will remain precisely as they are now, if the vote 
is passed, and no harm certainly will be done. 

If we might be permitted, with all respect, to offer a single 
suggestion to those who labor to retain these caste schools, 
which are an offence to humanity, and an obstruction in the 
path of progress, snail-paced though it may be, of the colored 
race, it would be this, — to examine closely and estimate fairly, 
the motives and reasons that impel them to this labor. 

If this should be done with a singleness of purpose, and a 
manly determination to abide by the result of such an analysis, 
we cannot doubt the decision will be correct, that it will meet 
the public sanction and what is better, that of an approving 
conscience. 

We have trespassed upon time, and perhaps have exhausted 
patience, by our inability to be more brief and less tedious, 
notwithstanding we have rejected much that pressed for utter- 
ance, and avoided all desire to multiply words. Towards 
those who entertain opposing views, and who advocate a 
totally different course, we claim to entertain no other, than 
respectful regard. And while we have characterized the posi- 
tion taken, and the reasons put forth to sustain them, as we 
think only fairly and truly, others perhaps may deem, that we 
have been uncharitable, unjust, and fanatical. 

For such discrepancy, there is no remedy, save what may be 
derived from the exercise of candor, charity and good sense, 
which we hope may always abound in our deliberations. 
However otherwise we may be judged, we cannot admit that 
the convictions we have uttered and the positions we have 
endeavored to sustain, are justly liable to the charge of party 
cant, or of sickly sensibility towards the colored race, but may 
more properly be considered as 'prompted by self-respect, and 
the result of only a common regard for justice and humanity, 
while they are amply supported by every consideration of 
reason, and every dictate and duty of Christianity. 

EDMUND JACKSON. 
H. I. BOWDITCH. 



APPENDIX. 



The following letters from highly respected and efficient 
i,Tiembers of the School Committees of Nantucket, New Bed- 
ford, Lowell and Salem, are appended, to show that no injury 
is experienced by the Schools in those places in consequence 
of educating the white and colored children together. They 
show also, what was indeed sufficiently apparent to every 
candid mind, that colored children can be educated qiiite as 
ivell to say the least, in the common schools as they can be in 
caste schools, and thereby prove that the theory recently 
adopted to sustain the caste schools of Boston has no founda- 
tion whatever in fact. 

We not only find colored children in the High Schools of 
New Bedford, Lowell, and Salem, but, what is more to the 
purpose, among the best scholars, and in one instance, the best 
in the school. If the caste schools of Boston, containing more 
colored children than are to be found, in all the schools of 
Nantucket, New Bedford, Lowell and Salem put together, 
have ever yet fitted a single scholar for the High Schools, we 
have yet to learn the fact. 

Nantucket, March 27th, 1S46. 
Edmund Jackson. Boston : 

Sir, — In answer to your first question, ' What is the proportion 
of colored to white children in our public schools,' I will state that 
we have about tvelve hundred and sixty children in our public 
schools ; of these thirty-seven are colored, nine of whom are in the 
Grammar Schools, iind the remaining twenty-eight in the Primary 
Schools. 

Second: What advantage or disadvantage from separate schools 
for the Blacks or from their going to the same schools as the 
Whites? /The disadvantage to the Blacks in the separation was that 
their parents believed it illegal and unjust, hence the attendance of 
the children at school was irregular, and their progress in study 
slower. J 

Admission to the same schools as the Whites excites their 



22 

ambition, and the year that we admitted them to the Grammar 
Schools, (we had about fifteen through the year,) their attendance 
was very regular, and their improvement much greater than when 
in the Black school.; No disadvantage resulted to the Whites during 
that year, and we apprehend none for the future. 

Third : Were the colored people desirous of having their children 
attend with the Whites ? — Yes, very. 

Do they send their children to school now more generally than 
formerly to the separate school ? — Yes : at the Black school there 
were twenty-seven ; in our public schools we have now thirty-seven, 
and there are about ten more, now in private schools, who will 
probably be admitted on the next entrance day. 

What were the objections of the white citizens to the admission of 
Blacks to the same schools as the Whites ? — The objections of the 
whites were that they were negroes, oflfensive to the smell, and that 
the white children would be withdrawn from the schools in conse- 
quence of their admission. 

Were any withdrawn ? — Yes : fourteen were withdrawn from the 
South Grammar School, a school of one hundred and fifty scholars, 
to which five colored children were admitted ; but on the same day 
twenty-two new scholars entered, which accession made the school 
larger than before. In explanation of my reference to a time when 
colored children were in our Grammar Schools, I will state that 
three years ago the School Committee admitted those colored appli- 
cants that were qualified to a place in the Grammar Schools. A 
portion of the inhabitants were displeased with this, and the next 
year a Committee was elected and instructed to expel them ; this 
brought on a severe contest, in which much feeling was shown. 
This year the election of the School Committee turned on this ques- 
tion alone. It was the test question, and resulted in favor of the 
free admission of the colored children to the public schools. From 
this long contest and the feeling engendered by it, we expected some 
difficulty upon the admission of the Blacks ; but we have met with 
none ; the colored school is broken up, and the children are admitted 
into all our public schools, with the same freedom, and on the same 
ground as the Whites. No scholar has left any other school than 
the one above mentioned, which was in a district where the prejudice 
against color was strongest. We now think the matter settled, and 
do not expect farther trouble from this colored question. 
Respectfully yours, 

JOHN H. SHAW. 



23 

Nantucket, July 4th, 1846. 
Dear Sir, — Since I wrote you, I have found leisure to visit all the 
Public Schools in town, and with entire confidence can now state 
that the admission of the colored children has in no way injured 
them. I have been on the School Committee seventeen years with 
two intermissions of two years, one of them the last two years, and 
at no time have I found the Schools as a whole, in better condition. 
Early in February last the present Committee took charge of the 
schools, and decided to admit the colored children ; there were then 
twenty-seven of them attending the colored school, there are now 
fifty in the various public schools, well behaved, orderly children, not 
a single complaint has been made to the Committee thus far from 
any teacher respecting any one of them. On the first of February, 
there were in all the public schools in town, one thousand two hun- 
dred and eighty-one children ; on the first day of July there was, 
one thousand three hundred and sixteen, showing an increase of 
thirty-five, and this increase has all been in the south and west dis- 
tricts, where the colored children are ; while in the north district 
where there are but two colored children, although there are four 
schools with three hundred and ninety-seven scholars, yet here we 
find less than there was in February by twenty-four, so that the 
increase in the schools where the colored children are has been fifty- 
nine. This change is not to be ascribed to the admission of the 
colored children, but it shows that the schools have not been injured 
in the estimation of the parents. I have not the power to give you 
the exact number of scholars in the private schools, at the same 
periods of time, first February and first July, but can say positively 
that instead of an increase as stated by Mr. Jenks, the number is 
much diminisi ed, one school of seventy, and one of forty scholars 
has been givei up, and I am very confident that there are not as 
many children in the private schools now by seventy or one hundred 
as there was the first of February. 

Respectfully yours, 

JOHN H. SHAW. 



New Bedford, March 27, 1846. 

Sir : — There have been colored children in our High School, of 

which I am the master, during nearly the whole time since its first 

establishment, a peiiod of some eight or ten years. My pupils are 

from all classes in the community ; many of them from families of 



24 

the highest respectability, I have had no instance of any difficulty 
arising from the admission of colored children. They have uni- 
formly been treated with courtesy and kindness by the other scholars. 
I recognize no distinction grounded on color, and so far as my obser- 
vation goes, my pupils do not. The number of this class in my 
school has been small, and still is. There are four at the present 
time. I have noticed no difference in the aptitude to learn between 
them and the whites. There is no objection so far as my knowledge 
extends, to the method practiced in our schools, and no difficulty that 
I am aware of, has ever arisen from it. Immediately after the last 
general examination of our schools, a gentleman of the committee, 
remarked, that throughout the schools, the colored children appeared 
quite as well during the examination as the white children. 

I should think that the average attendance of this class in propor- 
tion to the whole number belonging to the schools, was equal to that 
of the whites, from the same condition in life. 

I am of opinion also, that they send their children as generally as 
the white population. I have no facts however, from which I can 
substantiate this opinion ; it is with us as with other large towns ; 
many children probably are out of school, but no more colored chil- 
dren, in proportion to their number, than whites. 
Your Obedient Servant, 

JOHN F. EMERSON. 



New Bedford, 4 mo. 10th, 1846. 

Respected Friend : — The number of colored children in our 
public schools is about ninety. Four of these are members of the 
High School. Forty are in the Grammar Schools. About twenty- 
Jive in the intermedial, and about twenty in the primary schools. I 
cannot give the average attendance of the colored children from 
record, because we do not know any such distinction in our record 
of the attendance. My impression is, that their attendance would 
not be quite so good as the average attendance of the schools, — but 
this is only an opinion, — if true, it may be sufficiently accounted for, 
in that they are mostly in a condition in life where their services 
must be oftener required at home. 

I have known one or two instances during the last three years, 
where parents have sent to the teachers a request that their child 



25 

should not be required to sit at the same desk with a colored child. 
Such a request, when it could be done without attracting the atten- 
tion of the school, has been silently complied with. Beyond that I 
have heard no complaint, no objection to the present system. The 
white children do not object to associate with the children of color, 
or ill-treat them, to my knowledge. On the contrary some of these 
children are general favorites in the schools where they are most 
numerous. I do not think the number of colored scholars — ninety — 
is quite their proportion according to population, — though it is 
probably their full proportion when compared with the attendance of 
the white children in the same condition in life. 

These children are interspersed in tioenty-one of our twenty-eight 
public schools, varying in number from 07ie to fourteen in a school. 
The latter number is found in the boys' Grammar School on Bush 
street, which is without question one of the best of our public schools. 
We may safely say, then, that their predominance in that school has 
not had much tendency to lower the character of it, for with them, it 
stands, at least, as high as^ any of its class. And in closing I will 
venture to express the opinion, that we have much less difficulty in 
managing the schools as we do, with entire disregard to color, than 
we should find in attempting to establish separate schools founded 
upon such a distinction. 

With respect, thy Friend, 

THOMAS A. GREENE. 



Lowell, April 14th, 1846. 

My Dear S;r, — In answer to your enquiry, whether colored chil- 
dren attend tht public schools of Lowell, and if so, how many, I 
state — That the public schools of Lowell, of every grade — primary, 
grammar, and high — are open to colored children, on the same con- 
ditions as to whi e children. There is not, nor ever has been, theo- 
retically or practically, any distinction in this respect whatever. The 
colored child, as tAe white, attends the school that happens to be loca- 
ted in his neighbo -hood, and no fauh is found or questions asked. He 
has the same right to present himself for admission to the high school, 
and if, upon examination, he is found to have the requisite literary 
qualification, he is admitted there, on an equal footing with his white 
brother. 

As to the number of colored children that attend the public schools, 

4 



26 

I have not the means of knowing. It is necessarily small, from the 
fact that the number of colored families in Lowell is unusually small 5 
but, few or many, they are all invited and urged to participate in the 
benefits of the common schools. In one of the grammar schools, as 
I am informed by the chairman of the school committee, a family of 
colored children were not only among the best scholars, but were the 
greatest favorites in the school. I know of only one instance of a 
colored child in the high school, but no others have applied. It is 
free to all, and the colored child has only to qualify himself for ad- 
mission, and he enters. This is the course that has been pursued in 
Lowell from the beginning, and its propriety has never been ques- 
tioned. The most of the children of the rich and the poor in Lowell, 
attend the public schools, and I have heard of no one's delicate sen- 
sibilities being shocked by the course that has been pursued. 
Very truly, I am your friend, 

ELISHA HUNTINGTON, 



Salem, July 6, 1846. 

Dear Sir, — 1 fear that I shall not fulfill your expectation in 
answering the questions you propose. Indeed I have no data, which 
would enable me to answer a portion of them, and have no means of 
obtaining them except by visiting every school in the city. 

You will allow me, then, to be very brief, and to say, that the 
average of scholars in attendance at the colored school at the time of 
its discontinuance, was about twenty-three. What the present num- 
ber is of colored children in the schools, I know not ; probably about 
the same as formerly. 

I have not heard of any difficulty in the schools in consequence of 
the admission of colored children. If any difficulty had occurred, I 
think I should have known it, for I have the supervision of the 
female grammar schools, in which difficulty on that subject would be 
most likely to arise. 

I am not aware that any white children have withdrawn from the 
public schools in consequence of the admission of colored children. 
It is true there was a strong sensation on this subject in this commu- 
nity ; but I have not heard of the withdrawment of any of the white 
children. 

What our citizens may do hereafter in regard to a re-establishment 



27 

of the colored school, I know not. Doubtless there are some, who 
would favor such a movement ; and yet, I think it will not be done. 
The colored children, as a general thing, behave well in the schools 
where they are, and are making good progress in their studies, so far 
as I have the means of knowing ; and I presume the present ar- 
rangement will not be disturbed. 

I am aware that the above is not very satisfactory, and perhaps I 
may be able ere long to be more definite. If I mistake not, there is 
but one feeling in this community in regard to the education of col- 
ored youth, which is, that they should have the same privileges as 
other children. 

With much esteem, yours, 

J. MANN. 



Since the foregoing Report was submitted, the City Solicitor 
has been consulted on the legality of the separate schools, and 
his opinion sustains them. This opinion, it was thought, 
required to be noticed, and a member of the legal profession 
has furnished the following 

REMARKS ON THE OPINION OF THE CITY SOLICITOR. 

We were among those who mourned the death of the late 
able City Solicitor, John Pickering, Esq. In common with all 
who have bonie his name, he had one marked characteristic, 
pre-eminently fitting him for public life — an unbending integ- 
rity. In this country we have so small a number of such men, 
that we can ill spare a single one. In reading the "Opinion" 
of his successor, we must either grieve at the contrast, or won- 
der and grieve both, at the strange sight of a man being selected 
for the office, so iittle imbued with a knowledge of our laws or 
the spirit of our institutions. 

It is a good sign, however, of the advance of public opinion, 
that the School Committee find it necessary to call in some 
other ofiicial to share the infamy with them. The post of per- 



28 

secuting the colored children, of sacrificing their rights to a 
cruel and eminently vulgar prejudice, becomes too hot for 
them to maintain it alone. Our only regret is that this neces- 
sity should have occurred at a time when it was possible for 
them to procure the aid of so respectable an office as that of 
the City Solicitor. It has long been one of the avowed evils 
of our city and town organizations, that some important pow- 
ers are necessarily committed, at times, to very small men. 
This has been flagrantly the case with our ordinary School 
Committees, and recent events have turned much public 
attention to the fact — a lurking consciousness of which has 
perhaps dictated the new alliance ; in which, however, we fear 
the hitherto respectable legal character of the Solicitor will suf- 
fer more than the waning influence of the Committee will 
gain. 

It is said to have been the advice given by an eminent law- 
yer to a friend possessed of good common sense, but not bred to 
the bar, who was about to accept a judicial appointment, that 
he should state his judgments briefly, but never risk giving 
any reasons for them. Our City Solicitor seems to have borne 
this caution in mind ; through the long waste of his pages it is 
somewhat singular that he does not give a single reason for the 
conclusion he adopts in regard to the point at issue. Undis- 
puted points are elaborately defended, but the main issue rests 
on his "thinks so." 

For instance, the learned gentleman is careful to prove 
beyond dispute, what has never been disputed, that School 
Committees are entrusted with large discretionary powers, — 
that they may select books, locate school-houses, classify 
scholars, &c., «fec., — all excellent doctrine. He is careful also 
to support with appropriate decisions, the other equally new 
and difficult proposition, that in the exercise of this discretion 
they are bound to be reasonable and not arbitrary. But then 
comes the gist of the Committee's question — the real point at 
issue between the parties to this controversy — Is the provision 
in question reasonable in the eye of the law 1 Upon this point 
the careful Solicitor does not enlarge. He contents himself 
with saying, " Yes ; " he does or dares not trust himself to say 



29 

why. Perhaps we could suggest a reason. We did not 
expect him to attempt, — certainly that would have been hard, 
after the entire failure of the Committee in that respect, — to 
show that the provision in question was expedient ; that lay 
beyond his province. But, if his purpose were conviction, he 
was bound to prove, and not merely assert, that the means 
used to effect a result which the Committee deemed expedient, 
were reasonable and allowable in point of law. 

The only thing which bears the shape of an argument, is 
the assertion that this authority, to maintain separate schools 
for the colored children, has been "exercised, for many years, 
under the sanction of some of our ablest jurists." This, as a 
matter of fact, we deny. Of course the timid silence of Hor- 
ace Mann is not to be taken as evidence of any such thing. 
We call upon the Solicitor to specify the able jurists who have 
deliberately given this foolish and vulgar system their sanc- 
tion, in years past. It would indeed be matter of surprise and 
deep regret to us to think that the character of the Massachu- 
setts bar was sullied by any sympathy with the narrow 
prejudice and petty views of our Boston School Committees. 
But allowing it to be so, certainly Mr. Chandler should be pre- 
sumed to know that the careless opinions of lawyers on ques- 
tions which have not much engaged their attention, or that of 
the public, and specially where social prejudice comes in to 
blind air eyes, are of little weight. Has he now to learn that 
for a century all the profession in England were of opinion 
that habeas corpus should not be granted, in London, to West 
India slaves detained there against their wilH and that Har- - 
grave and Mansfteld had both to be taught the contrary by a 
Quaker clerk, Granville Sharpe? He has not been long in 
Boston, or he wo'ild not need to be told that in this very city, 
in this very matter of the colored people, the same point, until 
recently decided ii the Med case (Comm. vs. Aves,) was de- 
nied by every member of the Suifolk bar, save one. Let me 
tell this young official that the moment the element of color 
mingles in any question, no confidence can be placed in any 
American court or church. Even Story sullied at last the lue- 



30 

tre of a long life by a decision, =^ the infamy of which even his 
large services cannot hide. 

The following is the conclusion of Mr. Chandler : — " I am 
of the opinion, that the School Committee of Boston, under the 
authority, perhaps, of the City Council, have a legal right to 
establish and maintain special Primary Schools for colored 
children; and, in the exercise of their lawful discretionary 
power, to exclude white children from certain schools, and 
colored children from certain other schools, when, in their 
judgment, the best interests of such children will be promoted 
thereby." 

Now we maintain that such a system of schools is illegal 
and unreasonable, in the legal sense of the latter word — with 
any other at present we have nothing to do. Of course we do 
not believe, any more than Mr. Chandler, that this Committee 
ever dreamed that in maintaining such schools, they were 
really consulting the best interests of the colored children. 
Such things are said because something must be said, and 
believed, if at all, only by those weak men who take print for 
proof. 

The real question is simply this : " Have the Committee, in 
order to secure what they think the best interests of the chil- 
dren, the right to introduce into our schools distinctions utterly 
repugnant to the spirit and letter of our constitution and 
laws?" For certainly it will not be denied that in all the 
pages of the Massachusetts statutes there is no recognition of 
race or color ; — that our laws repudiate both, only submitting, 
from a necessity rather apparent than real, to the United Stales 
rule as to the militia. 

As Mr. Chandler has not favored us with any reasons for 
his opinion, we must deal with the subject generally, and it 
may perhaps aid us in directing our remarks aright to glance 
at the reasons assigned by the Committee for their action. 
The Committee profess that the ground of the distinction they 
make is the difference of '' race." " The distinction is one 
which the Almighty has seen fit to estabUsh, and it is founded 



31 

deep in the physical, mental, and moral natures of the two 
races. No legislation, no social customs can efface this distinc- 
tion" Avhich " renders a promiscuous intermingling in the 
public schools, disadvantageous both to them and the whites," 
" they should be kept distinct." "Amalgamation is degrada- 
tion." This is their profession ! 

Of any other men, than this Committee we should be obliged 
to doubt whether they could believe this : — but from them, we 
are inclined to think that this confession of nonsense is sincere. 

But, for the sake of argument, granting the whole to be 
true to such an extent, as justifies a separate system of in- 
struction, then evidently a different system of laws and gov- 
ernment, in the same proportion, would be justifiable and 
proper, since a large share of government is but a continuation 
of public instruction, telling the subject what to do and what 
to avoid — under penalties. The races which are so distinct as 
to require different training in the schools, cannot surely form 
a homogeneous basis for civil institutions, or allow of the 
same penal arrangements. England accordingly has one code 
for India, and another for Kent. Our laws on the contrary, 
negative all such distinctions ; they practically assert that 
before the law, and in regard to such institutions as the law 
establishes, the differences of race, creed, complexion^ and 
caste, melt away. The law does not undertake to establish 
any thing in which all may not partake. As members of a 
legal body, a School Committee, they should have eyes only 
for such distinctions among their fellow citizens as the law 
recognizes and points out. For the difference of age and sex, 
for regulations of health, (Stc., they find precedents ; in acting 
upon these they stand within the margin of that discretion 
which the law allows. But when they open their eyes to 
varied complexioi', to difference of race, to diversity of creed, 
to distinctions of caste, they will seek in vain through all our 
laws and institutions for any recognition of the spirit in which 
they act. They ase attempting to foist into the legal arrange- 
ments of the land, a principle utterly repugnant to our Consti- 
tution. What the Sovereignty of the Constitution dared not 
attempt, the discretion of a School Committee accomphshes ! 



> 



32 

The races which the Legislature allows to intermarry, this 
sapient Committee determines, and according to Mr. Chandler 
has authority to determine, shall not be educated within the 
same walls ! 

Our School Committees have without doubt a wide dis- 
cretion, unlimited, as Mr. Chandler asserts, by any express 
statute. So the treaty making power is unlimited by the 
Constitution of the United States. Still all statesmen worthy 
of the name, have held that the Executive cannot make a 
treaty which conflicts with the spirit of the other provisions of 
the Constitution ; that though not limited by express terms, 
the treaty making power is limited by the general tenor of the 
Instrument, and cannot annex a foreign nation, establish 
monarchy, or an order of nobility. So the authority of Con- 
gress over the District, unlimited in its terms, is doubtless 
limited by the other provisions of the Instrument in regard to 
the general power of that body and of the Union. These 
illustrations will suffice. Such precisely is the position of the 
various powers conferred on subordinate bodies in this Com- 
monwealth, School Committees among the rest. Suppose the 
City Authorities, in imitation of Damascus, should make a 
by-law that no colored person should remain on the sidewalk, 
while a white was passing ; or like South Carolina, forbid his 
being out after a certain hour; or like Rome, confine one class 
of our citizens to a certain quarter of the city. They certainly 
must seek among Dr. Woodward's pupils, or among School 
Committees for any one who would defend the legality of such 
arrangements. Yet of all of them they might ask as tri- 
umphantly as Mr. Chandler and ^he Committee do, of their 
colored schools, Where are they expressly forbidden by 
statute? 

But the truth is, before any of these arrangements are held 
legal, it must be shown that they do not conflict with the 
general law of the State. Mr. Chandler, therefore, had done 
but half his duty, even if he had reconciled the action of this 
Committee to one specified statute : — a harder task and one 
equally obligatory remains, to show its consonance with the 
whole tenor of our laws. In introducing so important an 



33 

element into our system as the right of a legal body to recog- 
nize different " races " among our citizens, and arrange their 
legal rights on that basis, he is bound to show more than that 
the act is not forbidden ; he must prove that it is allowed. 
From first to last, from the highest to the lowest, ours is a 
limited government. We are not to assume all powers that 
are not expressly forbidden ; on the contrary, we are bound to 
show in each case that our authority is expressly or impliedly 
granted. This Mr. Chandler has not even dreamed of doing. 
No one of course would expect the Committee to understand, 
but some would have expected Mr. Chandler to see, the 
importance of the principle which rude and bungling hands 
were trying to graft among republican institutions. After the 
very clear light in which Mr. Fletcher has placed the whole 
subject in his able opinion, addressed to gentlemen of Salem, 
it seems almost needless to enlarge. 

But suppose a case — suppose the Committee, sharing in the 
opinion now prevalent in England, that it is impossible to 
bring different sects together in any effective system of public 
instruction, should proceed to establish separate schools, one 
for infantile Catholics, a second for the Evangelical sects in 
short clothes ; and a third for Unitarians, Universalists, and 
the "scattering." It might be "in their judgment best." 
The profession that it was so would at least be credible, con- 
sistently with their reputation for common sense; having 
therein certainly a decided advantage over the present case. 
No sane man, we presume, would contend, that such an 
arrangement would be legal, and within the Committee's 
discretion, in Massachusetts? Yet why not? There is no 
express provision against it. Certainly none in the school 
statute so abl y commented on by the Solicitor. But it is never- 
theless palpably iJegal, because every feature of our Legisla- 
tion looks such an absurd scheme out of countenance, scouts 
it as anti-republican, as a practical confession that a general 
system of public instruction by the state is impossible. In 
asserting its possibihty, the Legislature tacitly condemns all 
such distinctions. 

Or suppose separate schools for the children of naturalized 

5 



34 

citizens : a plausible argument could be framed for their 
necessity, and every Native American would surely deem 
them best : — or a separate school for the children of church 
members from those of non-professors : — or, as in England, 
one school for the rich and professional, and another for 
mechanics : — or, a clearer case still : — A separate school for 
the children of School Committee men, they apparently re- 
quiring far more instruction than any other youths. 

In all these cases we have the charity to presume that Mr. 
Chandler would agree with us in holding these systems utterly 
beyond the discretionary power of any committee, though to 
be sure past experience would lead both him and us to fear 
that many committees could be found who would think them 
all legal and expedient. And why would he differ from them 7 
There is no express prohibition of them, according to him, in 
the School Statute, to which he confines himself in his opin- 
ion, — indeed there is no express prohibition of them anywhere. 
For according to Mr. Chandler and the committee, such dis- 
tinctions " neither hurt, molest, or restrain," any one, conse- 
quently do not come within the letter, as they think, of the 
bill of rights. But every one sees that the whole frame-work 
of our institutions forbids the making of such distinctions by 
law, or by any body raised under the laws. If Mr. Chandler 
reasons thus, will he be consistent, and go on to point out the 
foul spot where our law recognizes the odious distinction of 
color, or brands " the races " which mingle beneath its sway 
as too distinct to be educated together. The law entrusts to 
these committees its subject thousands, saying, '• Educate 
these." It recognizes the arrangements which age and sex, 
health, &c., render necessary, but its very purpose is to melt 
and fuse together all races and classes, so far as a public edu- 
cation is concerned. 

We shall not enlarge on this point, but we merely add that 
every possible argument legal or otherwise, which can be urged 
in favor of separate schools for colored children, applies with 
tenfold force in favor of all the schemes we have imagined 
above, and pre-eminently so to one which shall separate the 
sects. 



35 

Mr. Chandler endeavors lo make a distinction between the 
case of Boston and other places in the commonwealth, from 
the fact that they are districted, and we, strictly speaking, are 
not. The distinction is rather apparent than real. It would 
not be very difficult to show that the only difference between 
the two cases, namely, separate taxation, enters in fact as 
much into our system as theirs, and that the holding of sepa- 
rate schools here entails as real injustice on the colored tax- 
payer, as if his school tax was a distinct item. 

But the decisions of our Supreme Court, which he cites to 
another point, establish the principle that " districts must be 
geographical," and that "certain individuals cannot be selected 
and set set off by themselves, as a district." Did the Solicitor 
ever ask himself, why not? If he had, he would have seen 
that the reason and ground of these decisions covered ihe 
state of things in Boston as fully as if we were laid out into 
districts. The ground and reason of these decisions evidently 
is, that to allow any other rule would promote the growth of 
caste and favored classes ; that some rich, active or favored 
few would then reap from an institution designed to be com- 
mon, advantages which law could not rightfully help them to; 
that by keeping the seats of these little republican temples 
equally open to all whom Providence had thrown together in 
cities and towns, the anxiety of Avealth for the advantages of 
its child would draw into its own sunshine the child of its less 
favored neighbor, and thus secure the efficiency of that equal 
public instruc ion, in which alone the real interest of the com- 
munity in its :;chools consists. When any other rule is toler- 
ated, ^e\N Eng and loses the gem, the keystone of her admira- 
ble school system, which the experience of two centuries has 
sanctioned, and which she enjoys the distinguished honor of 
having originated. If Mr. Chandler's opinion, on the contrary, 
be law, there is lo reason whatever why the courts should not 
have permitted a luimber of families in any town to club to- 
gether and be set off as a district. Their case and that of 
persons separated on account of race and color are precisely 
parallel. We claim then, as on our side the only cases to 



36 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 653 766 1 



which Mr. Chandler alludes and the only one upon which th 
court has even adjudicated. 

( If it be a fact that the best interests of the white and colore 
children can only be secured by separate schools, then the 
best interests cannot be secured under any system of publ: 
State instruction. We must give up the theory, and the 
must, from the nature of the case, resort to private school, 
This is the basis of Mr. Mann's argument on the relation < 
our various sects to the public schools. The thing sougl 
may be good, but if obtained, must be obtained elsewhe] 
than through such a system of common and free schools £ 
our laws contemplate. 

We cannot close without expressing our conviction, derive 
from the wording of Mr. Chandler's opinion, that, in his hear 
he disapproves the odious system for which his aid was ii 
voked. We hope we do not give him, in this instance, tc 
much credit ; and only wish that he had been able to rii 
above the prejudices of his associates, and do justice to tl 
law which he professes to have studied. As a member of a 
honorable profession, and the incumbent of an hitherto honore 
office, he should have remembered that his words were 
have more weight than when he merely catered to a corru] 
public sentiment in the legislature, and he should have see 
to it that they were made worthy of that influence and weigh 
Mr. Chandler has said and done many things which as 
wise, if not an honest man, he will have ample cause to r^ 
gret, but the weakest act of all was when he suffered himse 
to be made the tool of a few narrow-minded and prejudice 
men. 

WENDELL PHILLIPS. 




iL'BRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 653 766 1 



HoUinger Corp. 
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